University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment 2

Cole Broomfield
Communication for Project Managers: ENCE424
Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman
October 30th, 2021
A.

Dear team,
Over the past few weeks, our performance has not been up to standard in order to
complete our LEED Greenhouse Hanover Project on time. There are many factors we can blame
for our lack of progress, but I believe they stem from an overall team issue. Communication is
the key to every successful project, and without it, we cannot efficiently move from one step to
the next. We have been lacking communication individually as well as a team, which has
delayed our projected finish date by several weeks. I know we are better than this! From my 20
years of experience as a leader in these types of projects, I know what it takes to overcome these
types of communication problems we are having. To fix this issue, we will have a team meeting
first thing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday till the end of the project to keep everyone
updated and involved so we do not have to continually backtrack when something isn’t working
out correctly. Looking at the several extraordinary projects completed in the past few years, I
know we have what it takes as a team to get this project back on track and completed to its best
ability. We are almost there, but it will take constant 100% effort to get the job done
successfully. I will see you all Monday at 8 am in Hanover meeting room 1.
Best,
Cole Broomfield

B.

In week 7 of class, we had a group activity in which we were to write out a story where
we struggled to solve an issue but eventually changed us for the better. Originally, I had written a
story about the time I convinced my mom to adopt a stray cat that was living in our pool shed. It
was a good starter activity because the way we had to arrange the individual parts helped me
understand my story much better in its development, but it also taught me how I can structure a
story to tell for the future. When I decided to tell another story, I decided to share the time I and
my buddies wanted to live at the beach for a summer but had many roadblocks that restricted us
from being able to do so. Eventually, I decided we should all take a trip to the beach that we
wanted to stay at and make it happen in person rather than over the phone or behind a computer.
I never thought much into what that experience had taught me, but there was definitely a moral
to the story that told me I must face my problems head-on by making it happen. The first thing I
learned from this activity was that when we share a story, the more we structure it by its
individual parts moving from one contextual point to the next, the more it makes sense to others
because they can understand how one part leads to another. It helped me learn to put my eyes
into the reader's perspective when describing a story, which is important because I tend to
describe a story as if the listener knows the little details that I may not describe very much. This
structured storytelling has allowed me to describe my stories with more care for others who are
listening. The second thing I learned from this activity is that there are morals to stories that we
may never notice. I explained how the morale of my beach story was to take my problems head-
on, but I didn’t have this realization until this activity. It makes me wonder what other lessons
I’ve learned from the experiences that I’ve had but may not realize.
C.

The Crucial Conversations textbook has taught me many things about how to respond in
heated conversations. Say for example my boss called me an “idiot” in front of my entire team,
there are many ways you can take that comment and respond. I think the first thing that I have
learned when responding to these types of moments is that I do not have to respond with words
immediately after hearing it. Typically, that is actually where you would say something that can
be harmful, or you might regret. I am going to take a moment to try to understand the conditions
as well as the content coming from my boss as page 26 of Crucial Conversations: Tools for
Talking When Stakes Are High states. I might ask myself, “Is he calling me an idiot because he
truly believes I am an idiot from my individual work, or is he calling me an idiot because he
disagrees with something that I said that may conflict with his/her view on something?” The first
question would show he genuinely thinks I am stupid, but the more likely second question would
imply that he is frustrated or upset with the immediate content of the conversation.
Understanding that difference is very important to know how to respond properly and
professionally. I would need to see how my boss and the room are responding to the comment. I
need to look to see if others are moving toward “Silence and Violence.” (Page 27 of Crucial
Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High.) A lot of the time when people say a
negative comment like so, they instantly regret it, which would typically lead them towards
silence, but if they start to move towards violence, it may not be the last harsh comment they say
and there are a few important ways you can move forward in this situation to make sure no more
harm is done. The first thing I want to do is keep a mutual purpose, which is to resolve the
conflicting issue. Although my boss might not be keeping a mutual purpose from their side, I
must show maturity because it possibly could rub off onto them and change their mood as well
as their attitude towards me. Firing back with anger is only going to ignite the fire inside that
room. As page 27 of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High states,
“People who are gifted at dialogue keep a constant vigil on safety.” The comment my boss made
to me could have had several meanings to it. It could have been a joke, a halfhearted statement,
or a serious threat. Either way, staying aware of our safety is the key to moving on and growing
from the situation. Finally, I need to respond. I would say, “I’m sorry you think that of me
sir/ma’am.” Many people would follow up with the question, “Why are you calling me an idiot?”
Rather than posing that question, I would say, “What is it that makes you feel I am an idiot?”
This difference in word choice of ‘what’ rather than ‘why’ helps create a less aggressive tone in
asking about a rude comment. Hopefully, this response would cool his temper, if he or she even
has one, and can allow us to come to a resolution on how we can go forward with our
conversation and meeting.

I’ve had an experience similar to this with my boss at a restaurant I used to work at. It
was Mother’s Day brunch and we were experiencing over an hour wait for food to come out of
the kitchen. I had no control over the wait, but our boss had instructed all the servers to make
customers aware of this delay. One table I had was an elderly man and two elderly women, one
woman being 90 years old. I had told them that the food would take over an hour to come out,
and they understood this and said they were fine with drinking coffee till the food had come out.
I constantly checked on them throughout their wait, but the food took even longer than expected.
It had been about an hour since they ordered, and the man asked me how much longer the food
would take. I could tell his patience was running out, and I assured them it would be out very
soon. Another 20 minutes go by, and the 3 elderly customers got up and complained to my boss
about the horrible service I was providing them and decided to leave in anger. My boss came up
to me and told me what they said and I could tell she was disappointed and frustrated with me.
Then I responded, knowing tensions were high because of the hectic environment, and told my
boss, “I’m sorry about their comments about my service, but I had done everything in my power
to keep them satisfied as you had instructed. Next time I will be more attentive to a group who
cannot wait that long to get their food because of their age.” I didn’t want to reflect any blame on
the customer because that would make me feel untrustworthy and disrespectful, especially to the
older group. I understood that no one was happy in the situation, and I didn’t want to make it any
worse. My boss immediately understood that I was truly attentive and concerned about the
group, and it broke the tension immediately. I think this is a good example of a crucial
conversation that I handled well, even after my work wasn’t necessarily up to standards. I
couldn’t do anything about their wait, and my boss knew that, so through my calm and mature
response, we were able to move on and continue working, probably even gaining trust from my
boss because she knew my true intentions from my words from the heart.

D.

One day in the school year of 2020, my buddies and I had an idea to do something
different for our summer break after sophomore year of college. We decided we wanted to live at
the beach, because who wouldn’t want to live and work at the beach for a whole summer, it’s
every kid’s dream! During the school year before summer, we would look up websites and
gather information on where we could live and what jobs we could get. We found a job to work
on the beach as umbrella and chair renters and had a few good leads on places to live. But, in the
span of about a week, we had concluded that all the places we were looking to live were either
too expensive, not available or too far from work. COVID had also been going on, so it was very
difficult to continue to find possible places to live. Because of that, we started to lose faith in our
summer plans. We stopped looking or talking about the idea because it seemed unlikely and out
of our league. Until finally, I had had enough and decided we should drive to the beach and try to
find something in person. We went to several real estate offices and made calls on Craigslist ads,
where we ended up finding our place to live not only for that summer but the next summer as
well. And, ever since then I’ve learned that if you want to do something special, the best way to
achieve it is to take it head-on, assume the risks that may come with it, and give it your all. There
was no way we were going to figure it out behind a computer screen, so instead, I corralled the
boys and made it happen.

E.

I decided to take the Big Five Personality Test two times on different days to compare
results and see if I was truly high or low in certain categories. To my surprise, the results of both
tests were very similar to each other. I scored around 80% in both the Openness and
Agreeableness categories, with my Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism categories
all around 50%. These results do not surprise me very much. When looking at the Openness
description, it describes a person who thinks in creative ways. This has become a trait of mine
through my architectural undergraduate studies. We were taught from the beginning to look for
different ways to solve logistical problems to come up with efficient solutions. From solving
problems about space, lighting, airflow, user convenience, and more, it is a very important
mindset to be able to look at problems from as many perspectives as possible and find solutions
that are new and innovative. The Openness category describes a person who plays with ideas and
discovers novel experiences. As I am faced with an issue, I like to make multiple drafts on
different ways I can move forward, each influencing the next. For example, we had a semester-
long project where we had to benefit the struggling city of Riverdale, a close-by town near
College Park. We did so by involving all the local restaurants that were disconnected from one
another. Plenty of research went into how these restaurants could be helped, and through
personal visits and online research, we came up with a website that allowed the public to access
information on a restaurant's whereabouts, its history, menu, and deals. We also had to figure out
a physical way to represent this and make it available to the public who may not have easy
internet access. That is where I came in with my openness traits. I decided we should post up
large signs in strategic spots near these restaurants, physically pointing to a restaurant that you
can see if you were walking or driving on the street. I had many different designs for these signs,
playing with colors, fonts, word phrases, and how to put these signs up. Finally, I came up with a
bright color scheme that had large one-word descriptions of the type of food the restaurant
provided, like spicey, fresh, smokey, and more. I also incorporated a QR code allowing
pedestrians to scan on their phone camera which takes them to a mobile version of our website.
My ability to be open with different types of ideas and tinker with solutions to find the best
design allowed me to come up with a great idea and help these restaurants gain interest, you can
even see them for yourself if you drive through the Riverdale area. This trait is indeed stressful
and tedious to have because I find myself always wanting to improve on my work. Some would
call it being a perfectionist, as I am not satisfied until a project is perfect in my eyes.

The other trait I scored high in is the Agreeableness category. Descriptions of people with
high agreeableness include a person putting others’ needs ahead of their own for overall benefit,
as well as getting pleasure out of serving and taking care of others. I think this is a very
beneficial and important trait to have. When I am in a social situation, I do not seek out others to
compete with, because then there is a winner and a loser. I’d rather just make us all winners by
making other people feel happy and having good experiences. In the types of situations where I
use my agreeableness trait, I don’t define being a winner as succeeding above others, I define it
as having a good and memorable experience when working or interacting with others. I love to
serve others' needs, because if someone else is happy, their mood and energy rub off on others,
including myself, making me a happier and more engaged person. My high school and college
experience in my faith with God is an example of how serving has benefitted me. I got
introduced to a club called Young Life early on in high school. It is a Christian club where we
combined our values of Christianity through social life. In this club, we would take missions
trips to places around the country to serve the less fortunate. A highlight of my life came from a
trip I had to New Orleans. I went with about 20 other good friends to stay in the downtown area
and worked on several public projects to benefit people or places that needed help. One specific
task we did was serve at a local soup kitchen for breakfast. It was tough to wake up at 5 am
repetitively, but seeing the reaction of people getting the food they desperately needed to start
their day made me feel so helpful and happy. The energy and experience I got from serving these
people is a reward I cannot be thankful enough for. 
Works Cited:

Patterson, Kerry; Grenny, Joseph; McMillan, Ron and Switzler. Al. Crucial Conversations:
Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition, 2011. Print.